Printing a handheld PC

Good news!

Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W.
Spec is pretty amazing.
"Broadcom BCM2710A1 SoC die as the launch version of Raspberry Pi 3", but down-clocked to 1GHz. - Raspberry Pi Foundation Page

Seems like it is 5x faster on multithreaded sysbench.

Official page:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/new-raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-2/

WIRED UK (review):
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-review

Price is $15 USD.
It will make things pretty interesting for printing handhelds.

Edited by stingraze 2021-10-28 9:46 AM

The only downside I can see is it still only has 512MB of RAM - Still, with a lightweight OS (like Raspbian) it should be OK for most HPC-type tasks. You could certainly build a very small machine with it!

I've ordered one already - Not sure what I'll use it for yet but I expect to sell out pretty quickly...

Cool!
I too want to order it when it is still available.
Here's a video from Explaining Computers.



Edited by stingraze 2021-10-29 2:13 AM

I found an interesting project, which is a cyberdeck.

Built with Rasbperry Pi 4.

HOSAKA Cyberspace VII MK3 by TRL


More info:
https://cyberdeck.cafe/mix/trl-22121

More cyberdecks here:
https://cyberdeck.cafe/

Edited by stingraze 2021-10-31 1:57 AM

The Pi Zero 2 Ws are already sold out and backlogged to 2022. I missed the window.

Stingraze I found it couple days ago, its so cool, I have to make something like that...

My gopher/XMPP server is a Pi Zero W 1. $15 goes a long way.

My Raspberry Pi Zero needs to be transformed to a setup so I can ssh into it, and enable H/PC to access WiFi internet through it with a bridge.
Setup:
Internet - Wifi - Raspberry Pi Zero - wired LAN - H/PC

I want to use the resources of the Raspberry Pi by making the H/PC kind of like a simple thin client with command line or web interface.

The hard part is getting the right ssh server that supports ssh software for H/PC. Maybe telnet will do?

Bridge I have in mind is something like this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BridgingNetworkInterfaces

Edited by stingraze 2021-11-01 5:28 AM

I've just made an interesting discovery with the screen I'm using for my 'HPC' project:

For reference, the screen is this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001592094639.html

This screen comes with quite a sophisticated control board that makes it behave as a monitor - As I've mentioned previously, this allows it to carry out clean scaling to various resolutions in hardware, thus taking quite a bit of load off the computer's CPU/GPU (very useful for low powered SBCs). I've just discovered that it also supports the DDC/CI protocol, allowing the screen backlight to be controlled via HDMI, and therefore by the OS much as a laptop screen would be.

For my project this means I can ditch the whole setup I was working on to control screen brightness, consisting of:

• Breakout board and ribbon cable to access the control board's 'keypad' input, corresponding to monitor buttons


• Wires from the base to the screen


• Level shifter for GPIO->keypad signal voltage conversion


• Code to detect presses of the brightness keys on the keyboard and generate the appropriate signals

Instead I simply connect the HDMI and USB cables as I would need to anyway, and the brightness control is taken care of at OS level.

I've only tested this from Windows so far, but the same protocol is available in Linux (with a little tinkering) so should work much the same, on any device with a HDMI output. I'll test this as well and report back.

This makes this screen and others using the same control board especially suitable to PDA / laptop type projects built around SBCs. I wouldn't be surprised if this applied to other control boards as well.



Edited by robertojones 2021-11-14 12:01 AM

Stingraze,

What OS are you running on your Zero? Raspbian?

I have a couple RPI4's sitting on the shelf. All I had to do was go into raspiconfig and turn ssh on. Then I was able to ssh in from any terminal on any computer. But I am running Raspbian, and I have WIfi turned on from the Raspbian desktop.

I also VNC in, and I even XRDP in... fun stuff!

I don't have any RPI Zero's, so I've never tested the concept there!

https://phoenixnap.com/kb/enable-ssh-raspberry-pi

Mike...

Edited by mikeschn 2021-11-26 12:06 AM

I forget which OS I installed on my Rasbperry Pi Zero, maybe it was Raspbian. I have Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4, and Zero.
I installed CentOS on 2, 3, and 4, but it's been some time since I used my Raspberry Pi Zero. I checked online if I could install CentOS on it but not much information, so maybe it was Raspbian after all. haha

Yeah, I use ssh to login to the Raspberry Pis, but I wanted to somehow do it adhoc to the device via WiFi or Ethernet. I guess I have to fiddle around with it. I made my Raspberry Pi Zero a hotspot and converted WiFi to Ethernet by NAT once.

Will be looking around in VNCing into it, was kind of afraid of security related stuff, but I guess the right configuration will secure it.

Edited by stingraze 2021-11-26 12:27 AM

You should be safe, stingraze, as long as your password is 1234

Had a USAA credit card hacked last week that I haven't used in two years. And it's stored on no site, even as a back-up. Then my email was hacked by same people who then installed USAA app on their phone, got my userid, and tried to get USAA to send my pin.

I was on the phone with USAA security and all this was happening in real time--I could see them in my on-line email, deleting the USAA-sent warnings. Everything got fixed for free but it was unnerving to watch.

Jake

Ouch. that hurts.

These days, hackers have dumps of people's credentials, so yeah...

1234 as password, I'll think about that. That should secure it!

How about using some symbols for passwords? I've never tried it, but seems like it should work.

For example, the diameter symbol. alt-0216

https://www.rapidtables.com/code/text/ascii-table.html

It's Christmas break... so I have some time to play again! Finallly!

It's time for a new 3d print... what would you guys like to see? I'm thinking about using a 10" display and a RPI 4B. Is that still a handheld PC? Hmmmm maybe...

What can we turn it into? A giant HP200LX? A giant Jornada? a giant Psion?

Your thoughts? Fun anyone?

Mike...